http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/36711.php

Rico: Border fix - Talk, no action
Politicos' visits give no traction to new immigration policy
Gabriela Rico
Tucson Citizen
The telephones at the Tucson and Yuma sectors' offices of the U.S. Border Patrol rang off the hook this past fiscal year.
Aides to the president, the speaker of the House and senators and governors from across the country were coordinating tours.
The VIPs wanted to visit the brave men and women working the front line of national security. (That's how politicians like to refer to them.) They gave agents pats on the back and photo ops at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Tucson sector received more than 100 visits from VIPs in fiscal year 2006, which ended Sept. 30. In the Yuma sector, agents hosted an additional 100 or so political and military leaders.
But a funny thing happened after the November election.
No calls. No visits. No pats on the back. No photo ops. Nada.
Agents brush off the notion that it stings.
"No ma'am," Supervisory Patrol Agent Jesus Rodriguez said, denying any hurt feelings among the ranks.
Oh, come on. You guys were the belle of the national security ball. I mean, the president himself came to visit. Twice.
You don't feel used?
"No ma'am," Rodriguez insisted.
Illegal immigration and illegal immigrants dominated the news this year and politicians across the country came to see our border with Mexico.
They stood at the chicken wire fence-welded railroad tracks that separate the two countries in some areas and vowed to "do more" to protect our nation from unauthorized entry. Do what? More. Oh.
The sudden decline in interest to visit the border is telling. As with all matters related to illegal immigration this past year, not much changed, but there was sure a lot of fuss.
Loud, annoying fuss from all sides. But 2006 will likely end much the way it started: two sides sharply divided and reform that appears unattainable.
On the enforcement end, there are soldiers on the border and walls are under construction. A bunch of laws were added to the books or were tweaked by voters that do everything from deny illegal immigrants access to government services to holding them culpable for being smuggled into the country.
Was the lack of laws ever the problem?
The year started with Gov. Janet Napolitano acquiescing to the notion of National Guard troops on the border, but she balked at the idea of legislation that would make illegal immigrants guilty of trespassing in Arizona.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., began a national tour to tout immigration reform and told union members at one rally that Americans couldn't handle the work of picking lettuce. Interesting campaign strategy.
Just as the spring flowers were beginning to bloom, marchers stomped on them by taking to the streets. First, students walked out of classrooms and then the adults got the marching fever, waving flags and screaming about how immigrants (legal or otherwise) are the backbone of this country's workforce.
OK. OK. Settle down, politicians urged.
And they did. Then they did nothing with their numbers or potential power at the voting booth.
The U.S. Senate recessed for spring break without voting on an array of immigration-related bills and President Bush ordered the National Guard to the Mexican border.
An 18-year-old illegal immigrant gave birth in the desert and cut the umbilical cord of her U.S.-born child with nail clippers as Minuteman Project members rode in a caravan from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., and a posse in Maricopa County set out to find illegal immigrants.
With summer temperatures rising, National Guard troops began to trickle into Arizona and the year's youngest known casualty of illegal immigration - a 3-year-old boy - died in the desert . A Border Patrol agent spent six hours retracing the mother's footsteps until he found the boy's body, perched under a tree - just as his mother had left him.
On the other side of the border, Mexico elected a new president and opposition parties tried to keep him from taking office as drug lords waged a war on his party's administration by executing high-level officials. Great. Doesn't look like we can expect much help from them.
In the fall, U.S. politicians gathered around Bush and did the golf clap as he signed a bill authorizing 700 miles of fencing on the border and Mexico threatened to take a dispute over the plan to the United Nations. Talk about cahones.
Then the campaign commercials began to air and many U.S. politicians sounded alike, pledging "to secure our nation's borders" or "to deliver real immigration reform." No one has defined either.
Arizona voters, apparently fed up with illegal immigrants, approved four measures that take rights and services away from them. The same voters also denied two immigration hardliners - Republican congressional hopeful Randy Graf and six-term incumbent U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth R-Ariz. - their political careers.
Maybe that explains why politicians are having such a hard time reforming immigration laws. They probably can't figure out what the voters want.
So, the VIP hotlines at Arizona's two Border Patrol sectors sit silent.
Agent Rodriguez says when the calls start coming in again - and they will - the VIPs will be accommodated.
Any intention of mentioning that he hasn't heard from them in months? That they never even called the next morning to say they had a wonderful time?
"No ma'am."
FRANCISCO MEDINA/Tucson Citizen
Gabriela Rico is an assistant city editor at the Citizen. She can be reached at 573-4561 and grico@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767.